Document archival system

ABSTRACT

An archival computer system for receiving digital documents from document source computers, archiving such digital documents, and providing the digital documents to client computer systems. The archival computer system is provided with a document database, a supplemental digital media database, a document input device, an archival computer, and a server. The document input device receives digital documents from the document source computers. The digital documents include non-pixalated, non-rastered digital documents, and supplemental media. The archival computer receives the digital documents, and archives data from the non-pixalated, non-rastered digital documents in the document database, and data from the supplemental media in the supplemental digital media database. The server, upon request, outputs a composite document including data stored in the document database and the supplemental digital media database.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present patent application claims priority to the provisional patentapplication identified by U.S. Ser. No. 60/725,084, filed on Oct. 7,2005. The entire content of the provisional patent applicationidentified by U.S. Ser. No. 60/725,084, filed on Oct. 7, 2005 is herebyincorporated herein by reference.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a document archival system constructedin accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 1 a is a description of a portable document protocol (PDP) allowingfor the distillation of graphical and textual elements of a printeddocument into a textual delimited packet of data for ease of archivaland reconstruction onto a document output device.

FIG. 2 is a logic flow diagram illustrating a process for archiving andrendering digital documents with supplemental media references in avectorized format, in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a document output device displaying a document havingcontextually linked supplemental media that is archived in a documentdatabase.

FIG. 4 illustrates a display of the document output device showing acomposite document having embedded and linked supplemental media.

FIG. 5 illustrates a PDP file of a composite document prior to such filebeing rendered onto the document output device.

FIG. 6 illustrates the composite document of FIG. 5 after the compositedocument has been rendered onto the document output device in accordancewith the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a process flow diagram for one version of a document renderingcode utilized in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Presently preferred embodiments of the invention are shown in theabove-identified figures and described in detail below. In describingthe preferred embodiments, like or identical reference numerals are usedto identify common or similar elements. The figures are not necessarilyto scale and certain features and certain views of the figures may beshown exaggerated in scale or in schematic in the interest of clarityand conciseness.

Definitions

Certain terms are defined throughout this description as they are used,while certain other terms used in this description are defined below.

The term “computer system” and/or “computer” and/or “program logicsystems” as used herein means a system(s) that is able to embody and/orexecute the logic of the processes described herein. The logic embodiedin the form of software instructions or firmware may be executed on anyappropriate hardware which may be a dedicated system or systems, or ageneral-purpose computer system, a personal computer system, adistributed processing system, all of which are well understood in theart and a detailed description of how to make or use such computers isnot deemed necessary herein.

The term “communication link” refers to any suitable device orcommunication system permitting electronic communications and/or opticalcommunications. Examples of such communication systems include internalbuses, local area networks, wide area networks, point-to-point sharedand dedicated communications, infrared links, microwave links, telephonelinks, cable TV links, satellite links, radio links, and fiber-opticlinks. Further, other examples of communication systems include theInternet. The term “communication link” can also refer to any suitablecommunication system for sending data and/or messages between remotelocations, directly or via a third-party communication provider such asAT&T. It should be understood that each of the communication links areshown and described separately herein for the sole purpose of clearlyillustrating the information being communicated. In an actualimplementation, the communication links may not be separatecommunication links but maybe a single communication link.

The term “archive” refers to placing or storing data in a long-termstorage device or memory so that the data is generally static and notchanged or edited after it is stored.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now to the drawings, and in particular to FIG. 1, showntherein and designated by a general reference numeral 10 is a documentarchival system constructed in accordance with the present invention. Ingeneral, the document archival system 10 functions to archive digitaldocuments into document databases, and to render such digital documentswith supplemental multimedia references (hereinafter referred to as“supplemental media” or “objects”) in a vectorized format.

In one embodiment, the document archival system 10 is particularlyadapted for archiving and rendering online banking statements. Thedocument archival system 10 provides the combined results of allowingfinancial institutions to upload and specify specific supplemental media(including text, images, animations, video and/or sounds) to be overlaidand/or rendered on online banking statements when viewed and/orperceived by users such as employees, agents and/or customers of thefinancial institutions.

While the document archival system 10 will be generally discussed hereinwith reference to its application for online banking statements forpurposes of illustration of the present invention, it should beunderstood that the document archival system 10 can be used forarchiving and rendering other types of documents, such ascomputer-generated text reports, print output files including PrinterControl Language and Post Script, and customer notices, productinvoices, service invoices, or billing statements, such as thoseprovided by utility companies, cable companies, phone service providers,etc.

As shown in FIG. 1, in one embodiment, the document archival system 10is provided with one or more client computer systems 12, one or moredocument source computers 14 (designated in FIG. 1 by the referencednumerals 14 a and 14 b for purposes of clarity), and one or morearchival computer systems 16.

The document source computers 14 can be any type of computer systemcapable of generating and/or providing digital documents which aredesirably separated as non-pixalated, non rastered digital documents(hereinafter referred to as “NPNR document”) and supplemental media asreferred or described herein. As such, the document source computers 14a and 14 b are preferably adapted to receive at least two differenttypes of documents via lines 40 a and 40 b, respectively. The first typeof documents, the NPNR documents, can include for example text, vectorgraphics, print output files, etc. The second type of documents,referred to as the supplemental media, can include for example text,images, animations, video, and/or sounds.

In the example described above wherein the documents relate to onlinebanking statements, it is envisioned that the document source computers14 would be associated with or under the control of a financialinstitution, such as a bank or credit union.

The documents received and/or generated by the document source computers14 a and 14 b are transmitted or communicated to the archival computersystem 16. In general, the archival computer system 16 archives thedigital documents and serves as an administrative interface accessibleby users, (such as financial institution employees, agents or customers)via the client computer systems 12 so that the users can view orotherwise utilize the digital documents. In one embodiment, the archivalcomputer system 16 is provided with a document input device 20, a server22, an archival computer 24, one or more document databases 26, and oneor more supplemental digital media databases 28.

The document input device 20 receives the digital documents (i.e., theNPNR documents and the supplemental media) from the document sourcecomputers 14 a and 14 b via communication links 42 a and 42 b. Thedocument input device 20 can be any device or computer capable ofreceiving the digital documents, such as an FTP server or scanner. Thedocuments received by the document input device 20 are then transmitted,passed or communicated to the archival computer 24 via a communicationlink 44, as will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 2.

The archival computer 24 preferably processes the supplemental media soas to associate the supplemental media with predetermined NPNRdocuments. Each of the NPNR documents (or a data file associated withone or more NPNR documents) contain information that identify particularsupplemental media to be associated with the NPNR document as well asspecify when and how the supplemental media are to be used within acomposite document including both the data within the NPNR document andthe supplemental media.

In one embodiment, the association is made by including uniqueidentification codes with the supplemental media. As shown in FIG. 2, inresponse to receiving the supplemental media, the archival computer 24assigns a unique identifier to each supplemental media and then insertseach supplemental media into the supplemental digital media database 28.The supplemental media is stored within the supplemental digital mediadatabase 28 via the communication link 48. In one embodiment, thesupplemental digital media database 28 is a SQL database, and eachsupplemental media is stored within the SQL database in a Binary LargeObjects field. However, it should be understood that any type ofdatabase and/or storage technique can be utilized.

Once the supplemental media are uniquely identified and stored in thesupplemental digital media database 28, the archival computer 24processes the NPNR documents to embed references to the supplementalmedia and store the embedded document in the document database 26. Thatis, upon receipt of one or more of the NPNR documents, the archivalcomputer 24 desirably recodes the NPNR documents in a PDP format(described in more detail in FIG. 1 a) to produce a PDP document, scansthe PDP document to locate all references within the PDP document tosupplemental media, and embeds the unique identifier assigned to eachsupplemental media referenced within the recoded document to refer tothe supplemental media discussed above. The recoded documents havingembedded references are then outputted and/or stored by the archivalcomputer 24 into the document database 26 via a communication link 46The document database 26 can be any relational database, such as forexample a SQL database or other suitable type of database. The embeddeddocument can be stored for example in a text type of field in thedocument database 26.

When it is desired for a user, (e.g., a financial institution employee,agent, or customer) to review and/or to perceive the composite documentincluding the embedded document (or PDP document) having thesupplemental media included or referenced therein, the user makes arequest to the archival computer system 16 via one of the clientcomputer systems 12. The client computer system 12 is provided with adocument output device 32, and a document rendering code 34. Thedocument output device 32 can be any device that can output or renderthe document, such as a computer monitor or a printer. The documentrendering code 34 receives a composite document in a vectorized format,as will be discussed below, and renders the composite document to thedocument output device 32.

Preferably, the users of the client computer system 12 must firstauthenticate their identity (via a username/password, biometric, orother authentication schemes), and then such users can request to see orperceive one or more of the composite documents. To request one or morecomposite documents, the client computer system 12 outputs a request tothe server 22 via a communication link 50, which is commonly the“Internet.” The server 22, which is typically a web server, receives therequest from the client computer system 12 and then retrieves the PDPdocument having the embedded identifiers of the supplemental mediareferences from the document database 26 via a communication link 52,and also retrieves the supplemental digital media from the supplementaldigital media database 28 via a communication link 54, and then createsa composite document having the content and the referenced mediaincluded therein.

As such, it can be seen that the document archival system 10 can beadapted to provide three primary processes: uploading NPNR documents andsupplemental media, specifying when and how the supplemental media areto be used with respect to the NPNR documents, and inserting thesupplemental media into the NPNR documents to render the onlinestatements.

In other words, the method by which the document archival system 10functions begins by receiving one or more supplemental media and NPNRdocuments from an employee, customer, or other party authorized by thefinancial institution operating the document source computers 14. Thesedocuments and/or supplemental media may be uploaded to the documentinput device 20 via an HTTP (Hypertext transfer protocol) uploadprocess, a HTTPS (secure Hypertext transfer protocol) upload process, oran FTP (file transfer protocol) upload process. The users of thedocument source computers 14 must first authenticate their identity (viaa username/password, biometric, or other authentication schemes), andthen such users are permitted to upload one or more of thenon-pixilated, non-raster digital documents, and or the supplementalmedia. The administrator of the archival computer system 16 may definecertain criteria to limit users from uploading more than a specifiednumber of supplemental digital media objects or the administrator mayspecify a maximum size allowed for one or a combination of supplementalmedia. The manager and/or administrator of the archival computer system16 may also be required to approve uploaded supplemental media prior totheir insertion into the NPNR documents, such as online bank statements,to ensure that such supplemental media are complete, functional andappropriate for the context.

Secondly, the users of the document source computer 14 can optionallyspecify when and how such supplemental media objects are to be used. Forexample, such users may define the objects name, description, media type(such as text, images, or the like), context (overlay, logo, errormessage, or the like), and/or limiting criteria such as which period ofstatements or individual statement cycles should include the object.Additionally, the document archival system 10 allows the users, such asfinancial institution employees and agents to determine an order ofprecedence for supplemental media at the same context. The order ofprecedence allows the document rendering code 34 to specify that in theevent a supplemental media cannot be rendered for any reason (forexample the supplemental media is incomplete, the supplemental media isnot supported for display on the current display medium, or the like),which supplemental media to display in its place. This allows for theappropriate static elements, such as images, to replace dynamicelements, such as animations, across static medians such as printedpaper.

Thirdly, the document archival system 10 automatically inserts thesupplemental media into the composite document, such as onlinestatements. The document rendering code 34 upon rendering a statementpage for example, checks the uploaded supplemental media and determineswhich to insert. The document rendering code 34 will includesupplemental media that belong to the same financial institution, forexample, as the banking customer for which the document rendering code34 is rendering the statement page and that meet any limiting criteriaspecified regarding the supplemental media. Additionally, the documentrendering code 34 will use the supplemental media's user-defined mediatype and context to determine how, where and when the selected objectsare rendered across their display medium, whether via World Wide Web,direct down load, screen display, printing or other media. If thecurrent display medium does not support the selected supplemental media,the next supplemental media that matches the same context and has alower order of precedence is selected for rendering instead.

The composite document rendered onto the document output device 32 canhave a variety of different types of components 60. The components 60can be generally classified as text data 62, one or more links 64, oneor more embedded media reference 66, and one or more linked mediareference 68. Examples of the text data 62, links 64, embedded mediareference 66 and linked media reference 68 are shown in Figures and/orFIG. 4. In these examples, the text data 62 includes informationregarding a banking statement, such as a customer name, address andaccount number, a statement period, transaction numbers, transactiondescriptions, transaction amounts, and the like. The links 64 are in theform of check numbers and are linked with the unique identifiersidentifying the supplemental media in the supplemental media database28. When one of the links 64 are selected, a request is transmitted tothe server 22 including the unique identifier identifying thesupplemental media. The server 22 retrieves the supplemental mediaidentified by the unique identifier from the supplemental media database28 and then downloads the supplemental media to the document renderingcode 34 of the client computer system 12 for rendering to the documentoutput device 32. In these examples, the linked media reference 68 is acheck image. The embedded media reference 66 in this example includes adynamic advertisement banner.

An example of the composite document is shown in FIG. 5. The compositedocument is transmitted from the server 22 to the document renderingcode 34 of the client computer system 12 via the communication link 50where the document rendering code 34 renders the document to thedocument output device 32 as will be described in more detail below.FIG. 6 shows an example of the rendered document formed by the compositedocument depicted in FIG. 5. In the example of FIG. 6, the text data 62includes information regarding a customer name, address and accountnumber, a statement period, transaction numbers, transactiondescriptions, transaction amounts, and the like. The links 64 are in theform of check numbers and are linked with the unique identifiersidentifying the supplemental media in the supplemental media database28. The MSI form background is the embedded media reference.

The document rendering code 34 can be implemented as a flash viewer, forexample, or as an installed application designed to receive thecomposite document and render such composite document to the documentoutput device 32. The document rendering code 34 is preferablycompatible with a Web browser so that the rendered document appearswithin the Web browser.

It should be understood that when the linked media reference 68 areuploaded and rendered on the document output device 32, this isdesirably accomplished by overlaying the linked media reference 68. Thisgreatly increases the speed in which the linked media reference 68 canbe rendered because it eliminates the need of opening a separate“pop-up” window, or refreshing or redrawing the existing display.

The document archival system 10 also includes security features forpreventing users from viewing other user's supplemental media. Whensupplemental media is stored in the digital media database 28, someother contextual information may be interpreted from the media as to howit is associated or related to other documents or media elements. Forinstance, a check image may have an account number assigned to it, whichwould match an account number on a statement document. When suchcontextual metadata is stored with supplemental media, the documentretrieval system can verify that this information matches to add a layerof security to the supplemental media retrieval process. In thisexample, if a statement document was encoded into PDP with a link to acheck that did not have an account number that matched the accountnumber of the statement, then the system would prevent the check frombeing rendered to the receiver.

The document rendering code 34 also has the ability to conduct a textsearch through all of the text data 62, one or more links 64, one ormore embedded media reference 66, and one or more linked media reference68. The search function is accomplished by reading through the PDPencoding for a given page, entire document, or set of documents andexecuting a pattern matching algorithm on the content data stored withinthe freeform data portion of text lines. The freeform data, that is, theactual data that is rendered on the page in a particular format, is thenshown to a user either by highlighting the text on a page and/orproducing a list of search results to the user.

It will be understood from the foregoing description that variousmodifications and changes may be made in the preferred and alternativeembodiments of the present invention without departing from its truespirit. This description is intended for purposes of illustration onlyand should not be construed in a limiting sense. “A,” “an” and othersingular terms are intended to include the plural forms thereof unlessspecifically excluded.

1. An archival computer system for receiving digital documents fromdocument source computers, archiving such digital documents, andproviding the digital documents to client computer systems, the archivalcomputer system comprising: a document database; a supplemental digitalmedia database; a document input device receiving digital documents fromthe document source computers, the digital documents includingnon-pixalated, non-rastered digital documents, and supplemental media;an archival computer receiving the digital documents, and archiving datafrom the non-pixalated, non-rastered digital documents in the documentdatabase, and data from the supplemental media in the supplementaldigital media database; and a server, upon request, outputting acomposite document including data stored in the document database andthe supplemental digital media database.
 2. The archival computer systemof claim 1, wherein each of the non-pixalated, non-rastered digitaldocuments contain information that identify particular supplementalmedia to be associated with the non-pixalated, non-rastered digitaldocuments.
 3. The archival computer system of claim 1, wherein thedocument input device receives a data file associated with one or morenon-pixalated, non-rastered digital documents, the data file includinginformation that identify particular supplemental media to be associatedwith the non-pixalated, non-rastered digital documents.
 4. The archivalcomputer system of claim 1, wherein the supplemental digital mediadatabase includes a binary large objects field, and wherein thesupplemental media are stored in the binary large objects field.
 5. Thearchival computer system of claim 4, wherein the supplemental digitalmedia database is a relational database.
 6. The archival computer systemof claim 1, wherein the archival computer processes the non-pixalated,non-rastered digital documents to embed unique references to thesupplemental media and stores the embedded documents in the documentdatabase.
 7. The archival computer system of claim 6, wherein thedocument database includes a text field, and wherein the embeddeddocuments are stored in the text field of the document database.
 8. Thearchival computer system of claim 1, wherein the composite documentincludes instructions for rendering at least one of the supplementalmedia by overlaying the supplemental media.
 9. The archival computersystem of claim 1, wherein the composite document is in a vectorizedformat.
 10. A method for rendering a composite document, comprising thesteps of: receiving a request for a composite document formed by adocument having embedded identifiers and supplemental media references;retrieving the document having embedded identifiers of the supplementalmedia references; retrieving the supplemental media referencesidentified in the document; and outputting the document and thesupplemental media references in a format to be rendered by a documentrendering code of a client computer system.
 11. The method of claim 10,wherein the document includes information setting an order of precedencefor supplemental media at the same context.
 12. The method of claim 10,further comprising the step of automatically inserting supplementalmedia into the composite document.
 13. The method of claim 10, whereinthe composite document is an online financial institution statement. 14.The method of claim 10, wherein in the step of outputting the documentand the supplemental media references, at least one of the supplementalmedia references is output with instructions to overlay the supplementalmedia reference.